A rapist who imprisoned a woman in her home and choked her with a set of fairy lights was has been jailed for 10 years.

Hernany Ernesto De-Brito, 22, of no fixed address, locked himself into his 50-year-old victim’s home and throttled her with lights taken from her Christmas tree until her eyes became bloodshot.

He also beat her during the sex attack on November 11 last year, leaving the woman with serious injuries.

Along with two friends, De-Brito visited her Seven Kings home, but when the friends left he took her keys and locked her in.

During the ordeal she was bitten and raped three times by the Angolan.

She was unable to escape until around 6am the next morning, when he fell asleep and she used a set of spare keys to flee the house.

After just five hours' deliberation at Snaresbrook Crown Court yesterday, De-Brito was convicted of three counts of rape, choking with intent to commit rape, false imprisonment, assault by penetration and causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

Judge Louise Kamill told him: “The rapes are three-fold and took place in three different ways over a period of false imprisonment which lasted about two hours in the victim’s own home.”

She added that De-Brito had consumed more than 10 beers, which aggravating the attack, and that because he knew the woman was not in the country legally he threatened her future during the ordeal.

“It is obvious that the nature and brutality of your offending show you will remain a high-risk to the public in future,” she added.

De-Brito will also serve a consecutive 40 weeks for being drunk and disorderly on a previous occasion, and will remain on the sex offenders register for the rest of his life.